Timestamping changes to smart-contract state

ABSTRACT

An example operation may include one or more of calculating a timestamp for each transaction within a blockchain. The calculating of the time stamp includes setting an incremental number to each key and value modified in the transaction, and incrementing the incremental number when the transaction within the blockchain is processed. The example operation may also include determining a relative order of change made to a smart-contract state.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application generally relates to timestamping smart-contract state and more particularly to timestamping changes to smart-contract state.

BACKGROUND

A ledger is commonly defined as an account book of entry, in which transactions are recorded. A distributed ledger is ledger that is replicated in whole or in part to multiple computers. A Cryptographic Distributed Ledger (CDL) can have at least some of these properties: irreversibility (once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be reversed), accessibility (any party can access the CDL in whole or in part), chronological and time-stamped (all parties know when a transaction was added to the ledger), consensus based (a transaction is added only if it is approved, typically unanimously, by parties on the network), verifiability (all transactions can be cryptographically verified). A blockchain is an example of a CDL. While the description and figures herein are described in terms of a blockchain, the instant application applies equally to any CDL.

A distributed ledger is a continuously growing list of records that typically apply cryptographic techniques such as storing cryptographic hashes relating to other blocks. A blockchain is one common instance of a distributed ledger and may be used as a public ledger to store information. Although, primarily used for financial transactions, a blockchain can store various information related to goods and services (i.e., products, packages, status, etc.). A decentralized scheme provides authority and trust to a decentralized network and enables its nodes to continuously and sequentially record their transactions on a public “block”, creating a unique “chain” referred to as a blockchain. Cryptography, via hash codes, is used to secure an authentication of a transaction source and removes a central intermediary. A blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of records in a blockchain blocks, which are secured from tampering and revision due to their immutable properties. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. A blockchain can be used to hold, track, transfer and verify information. Since a blockchain is a distributed system, before adding a transaction to a blockchain ledger, all peers need to reach a consensus status.

Conventionally, blockchain platforms leverage immutable logs by providing support to handle custom business logic into algorithmic units (e.g., smart-contracts). A smart-contract encapsulates logic and state. The state may consist of a key and value model, transactions consist on the result of execution of smart-contracts, which determine the new state of the smart-contract by including the modifications to apply to current state. The state can be reconstructed by replaying the transactions registered into the immutable log. Transactions are grouped into blocks and no order is determined to the changes made by the transactions included in each block.

As such, an alternative approach, leveraging the immutable order of the ledger to set a unique order of changes made to the state of all smart-contracts and exposing this ordering for consumption within smart-contract logic, may be beneficial.

SUMMARY

One example embodiment may provide a method that includes one or more of calculating a timestamp for each transaction within a blockchain. The calculating of the time stamp includes setting an incremental number to each key and value modified in the transaction and incrementing the incremental number when the transaction within the blockchain is processed. The method also includes determining a relative order of change made to a smart-contract state.

Another example embodiment may provide a system that includes a committer node configured to perform one or more of calculate a timestamp for each transaction within a blockchain. The committer node is further configured to set an incremental number to each key and value modified in the transaction and increment the incremental number when the transaction within the blockchain is processed. The committer node is further configured to determine a relative order of change made to a smart-contract state.

A further example embodiment may provide a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, that when read by a processor, cause the processor to perform one or more of calculating a timestamp for each transaction within a blockchain. The calculating of the time stamp includes setting an incremental number to each key and value modified in the transaction and incrementing the incremental number when the transaction within the blockchain is processed. The instructions, that when read by a processor, causes the processor to further perform determining a relative order of change made to a smart-contract state.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating current state of smart-contracts with a blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example peer node blockchain architecture configuration for an asset sharing scenario, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example peer node blockchain configuration, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a permissioned blockchain network, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system messaging diagram for performing calculating a timestamp for a smart-contract state and making the state available for smart-contract logic, according to example embodiments

FIG. 5A illustrates a flow diagram of an example method of timestamping changes to a smart-contract state in a blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 5B illustrates a flow diagram of an example method of calculating a timestamp in a blockchain in a blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example physical infrastructure configured to perform various operations on the blockchain in accordance with one or more operations described herein, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example smart contract configuration among contracting parties and a mediating server configured to enforce smart contract terms on a blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example computer system configured to support one or more of the example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It will be readily understood that the instant components, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of at least one of a method, apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium and system, as represented in the attached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the application as claimed but is merely representative of selected embodiments.

The instant features, structures, or characteristics as described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases “example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “in some embodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

In addition, while the term “message” may have been used in the description of embodiments, the application may be applied to many types of network data, such as, packet, frame, datagram, etc. The term “message” also includes packet, frame, datagram, and any equivalents thereof. Furthermore, while certain types of messages and signaling may be depicted in exemplary embodiments they are not limited to a certain type of message, and the application is not limited to a certain type of signaling.

Example embodiments provide methods, systems, non-transitory computer readable media, devices, and/or networks, which provide smart-contract state timestamping.

A blockchain is a distributed system which includes multiple nodes that communicate with each other. A blockchain operates programs called chaincode (e.g., smart contracts, etc.), holds state and ledger data, and executes transactions. Some transactions are operations invoked on the chaincode. In general, blockchain transactions typically must be “endorsed” by certain blockchain members and only endorsed transactions may be committed to the blockchain and have an effect on the state of the blockchain. Other transactions which are not endorsed are disregarded. There may exist one or more special chaincodes for management functions and parameters, collectively called system chaincodes.

Nodes are the communication entities of the blockchain system. A “node” may perform a logical function in the sense that multiple nodes of different types can run on the same physical server. Nodes are grouped in trust domains and are associated with logical entities that control them in various ways. Nodes may include different types, such as a client or submitting-client node which submits a transaction-invocation to an endorser (e.g., peer), and broadcasts transaction-proposals to an ordering service (e.g., ordering node). Another type of node is a peer node which can receive client submitted transactions, commit the transactions and maintain a state and a copy of the ledger of blockchain transactions. Peers can also have the role of an endorser, although it is not a requirement. An ordering-service-node or orderer is a node running the communication service for all nodes, and which implements a delivery guarantee, such as a broadcast to each of the peer nodes in the system when committing transactions and modifying a world state of the blockchain, which is another name for the initial blockchain transaction which normally includes control and setup information.

A ledger is a sequenced, tamper-resistant record of all state transitions of a blockchain. State transitions may result from chaincode invocations (i.e., transactions) submitted by participating parties (e.g., client nodes, ordering nodes, endorser nodes, peer nodes, etc.). A transaction may result in a set of asset key-value pairs being committed to the ledger as one or more operands, such as creates, updates, deletes, and the like. The ledger includes a blockchain (also referred to as a chain) which is used to store an immutable, sequenced record in blocks. The ledger also includes a state database which maintains a current state of the blockchain. There is typically one ledger per channel. Each peer node maintains a copy of the ledger for each channel of which they are a member.

A chain is a transaction log which is structured as hash-linked blocks, and each block contains a sequence of N transactions where N is equal to or greater than one. The block header includes a hash of the block's transactions, as well as a hash of the prior block's header. In this way, all transactions on the ledger may be sequenced and cryptographically linked together. Accordingly, it is not possible to tamper with the ledger data without breaking the hash links. A hash of a most recently added blockchain block represents every transaction on the chain that has come before it, making it possible to ensure that all peer nodes are in a consistent and trusted state. The chain may be stored on a peer node file system (i.e., local, attached storage, cloud, etc.), efficiently supporting the append-only nature of the blockchain workload.

The current state of the immutable ledger represents the latest values for all keys that are included in the chain transaction log. Because the current state represents the latest key values known to a channel, it is sometimes referred to as a world state. Chaincode invocations execute transactions against the current state data of the ledger. To make these chaincode interactions efficient, the latest values of the keys may be stored in a state database. The state database may be simply an indexed view into the chain's transaction log, it can therefore be regenerated from the chain at any time. The state database may automatically be recovered (or generated if needed) upon peer node startup, and before transactions are accepted.

The example embodiments are directed to methods, devices, networks, non-transitory computer readable media and/or systems, which support a blockchain solution that includes one or more of setting a unique order of changes to a state of smart-contract. The setting of the unique order may include one or more of associating of a same numeric value to each key modified by a valid transaction. The setting of the unique order enables a comparison of changes when modifications are made on different blocks and when modifications are made within a same block. Some of the benefits of such a solution include taking advantage of the immutable order guaranteed by the platform, the key and value data model used to maintain the state of smart-contracts is augmented by automatically setting a timestamp to the change based on the order in which the transaction that gave rise to such value was stored in the immutable log. This ordering is made available to the smart-contract logic.

Some embodiments extend the capabilities of smart-contracts. For example, when a domain specific language, such as non-Turing Complete, is used for writing the smart-contract.

It should be noted that whenever a transaction is committed into the ledger and the state is updated based on the transaction results, a timestamp is calculated for updated keys based on the order in which the transaction was stored. The keys that are updated as part of the same transaction may receive the same timestamp. If, however, the smart-contract involves more keys that were not modified in the current transaction, then a modification is not made to the unmodified keys.

Some embodiments pertain to a blockchain platform to provide ordering to be used as part of smart-contract logic. Current solutions obtain the sequence of modification of a given key, but support is not given to compare the order between different keys. For instance, complex notary systems can rely on the ordering provided by the platform, as the order in which different documents has been signed can be taken into account within a smart-contract. Neither having to write an intricate logic to deal with such implementation details nor having to use a Turing complete language to write the smart-contract in order to be able to query the ledger. In some embodiments, when no prior knowledge of the need of such ordering will be required by future functionality or even future smart-contracts.

One of the nice features of relying on the order imposed by the ledger resides in its ability to formally verify the established order.

Some embodiments permit a smart-contract to use a relative order of changes. That is, from any smart-contract, a comparison can be performed of when an asset was modified. For example, the comparison determines if the asset was modified before or after another asset. The platform is configured to provide the ordering, so the smart-contract may determine the tables including the modifications to compare the changes. Because the blockchain is a distributed system, there is no unique technique for timestamping because each server or node in a network may have its own timestamp. Thus, an alternative approach for comparing relative changes in a smart contract may be more beneficial.

In an embodiment, the order in which transactions are set in the ledger is used. This provides a unique order of changes to the assets. Every time the asset is modified as part of a transaction, the timestamp for that particular asset is calculated. This provides a uniform or global order, relative to the changes incorporated into the ledger. By exposing the ordering, the smart-contract can compare and determine when the particular asset was modified, i.e., whether the particular asset was modified before or after another asset.

FIG. 1 is a diagram 100 illustrating current state of smart-contracts 104 ₁ and 104 ₂, according to an embodiment. In this diagram, there are a sequence of blocks 102 ₁ . . . 102 _(N), and each block 102 ₁ . . . 102 _(N) contains multiple transactions (e.g., tx_n_1, tx_n_2, . . . tx_n_k). Each transaction may modify or execute a smart-contract. For instance, the second transaction (tx_n_2) in block 102 ₁ modifies wallet1 in smart-contract 104 ₁. In block 102 _(N), the first transaction modifies wallet2 in smart contract 104 ₁.

With this approach, a comparison can be performed to determine if wallet1 was modified before wallet2, because the timestamp of this modification can be viewed based on when the modification was settled in the ledger.

When there is another transaction that modifies doc2 in smart-contract 104 ₂, a comparison can be performed to view when the document was modified. The solution allows for the smart-contract to take advantage of the unique and global order relative to what is generated when transactions are settled in the ledger. A smart-contract logic can be written taking advantage of that order.

To calculate a timestamp for each change, a committer node may set an incremental number to each key and value that are modified in a transaction. Each time a transaction is process, the number is incremented.

From the smart-contract, it may be possible to determine the relative order of the changes made to the state of the smart-contract. For example, the determining of the relative order is performed when the amount associated to the wallet is updated before the content of a given document was modified. In another example, the determining of the relative order is performed when the amount of a wallet was modified at the same time of another (i.e., both wallets have been modified within the same transaction).

FIG. 2A illustrates a blockchain architecture configuration 200, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 2A, the blockchain architecture 200 may include certain blockchain elements, for example, a group of blockchain nodes 202. The blockchain nodes 202 may include one or more nodes 204-210 (these nodes are depicted by example only). These nodes participate in a number of activities, such as blockchain transaction addition and validation process (consensus). One or more of the blockchain nodes 204-210 may endorse transactions and may provide an ordering service for all blockchain nodes in the architecture 200. A blockchain node may initiate a blockchain authentication and seek to write to a blockchain immutable ledger stored in blockchain layer 216, a copy of which may also be stored on the underpinning physical infrastructure 214. The blockchain configuration may include one or applications 224 which are linked to application programming interfaces (APIs) 222 to access and execute stored program/application code 220 (e.g., chaincode, smart contracts, etc.) which can be created according to a customized configuration sought by participants and can maintain their own state, control their own assets, and receive external information. This can be deployed as a transaction and installed, via appending to the distributed ledger, on all blockchain nodes 204-210.

The blockchain base or platform 212 may include various layers of blockchain data, services (e.g., cryptographic trust services, virtual execution environment, etc.), and underpinning physical computer infrastructure that may be used to receive and store new transactions and provide access to auditors which are seeking to access data entries. The blockchain layer 216 may expose an interface that provides access to the virtual execution environment necessary to process the program code and engage the physical infrastructure 214. Cryptographic trust services 218 may be used to verify transactions such as asset exchange transactions and keep information private.

The blockchain architecture configuration of FIG. 2A may process and execute program/application code 220 via one or more interfaces exposed, and services provided, by blockchain platform 212. The code 220 may control blockchain assets. For example, the code 220 can store and transfer data, and may be executed by nodes 204-210 in the form of a smart contract and associated chaincode with conditions or other code elements subject to its execution. As a non-limiting example, smart contracts may be created to execute reminders, updates, and/or other notifications subject to the changes, updates, etc. The smart contracts can themselves be used to identify rules associated with authorization and access requirements and usage of the ledger. For example, smart-contract state 226 may be processed by one or more processing entities (e.g., virtual machines) included in the blockchain layer 216. The smart-contract state result 228 may include modifications to the smart-contract state. The physical infrastructure 214 may be utilized to retrieve any of the data or information described herein.

Within chaincode, a smart contract may be created via a high-level application and programming language, and then written to a block in the blockchain. The smart contract may include executable code which is registered, stored, and/or replicated with a blockchain (e.g., distributed network of blockchain peers). A transaction is an execution of the smart contract code which can be performed in response to conditions associated with the smart contract being satisfied. The executing of the smart contract may trigger a trusted modification(s) to a state of a digital blockchain ledger. The modification(s) to the blockchain ledger caused by the smart contract execution may be automatically replicated throughout the distributed network of blockchain peers through one or more consensus protocols.

The smart contract may write data to the blockchain in the format of key-value pairs. Furthermore, the smart contract code can read the values stored in a blockchain and use them in application operations. The smart contract code can write the output of various logic operations into the blockchain. The code may be used to create a temporary data structure in a virtual machine or other computing platform. Data written to the blockchain can be public and/or can be encrypted and maintained as private. The temporary data that is used/generated by the smart contract is held in memory by the supplied execution environment, then deleted once the data needed for the blockchain is identified.

A chaincode may include the code interpretation of a smart contract, with additional features. As described herein, the chaincode may be program code deployed on a computing network, where it is executed and validated by chain validators together during a consensus process. The chaincode receives a hash and retrieves from the blockchain a hash associated with the data template created by use of a previously stored feature extractor. If the hashes of the hash identifier and the hash created from the stored identifier template data match, then the chaincode sends an authorization key to the requested service. The chaincode may write to the blockchain data associated with the cryptographic details. In FIG. 2A, a smart-contract state 226, including a wallet or document, may be modified. One function may be to the smart-contract state result, i.e., the result of the modification, 228, which may be provided to one or more of the nodes 204-210.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of a transactional flow 250 between nodes of the blockchain in accordance with an example embodiment. Referring to FIG. 2B, the transaction flow may include a transaction proposal 291 sent by an application client node 260 to an endorsing peer node 281. The endorsing peer 281 may verify the client signature and execute a chaincode function to initiate the transaction. The output may include the chaincode results, a set of key/value versions that were read in the chaincode (read set), and the set of keys/values that were written in chaincode (write set). The proposal response 292 is sent back to the client 260 along with an endorsement signature, if approved. The client 260 assembles the endorsements into a transaction payload 293 and broadcasts it to an ordering service node 284. The ordering service node 284 then delivers ordered transactions as blocks to all peers 281-283 on a channel. Before committal to the blockchain, each peer 281-283 may validate the transaction. For example, the peers may check the endorsement policy to ensure that the correct allotment of the specified peers have signed the results and authenticated the signatures against the transaction payload 293.

Referring again to FIG. 2B, the client node 260 initiates the transaction 291 by constructing and sending a request to the peer node 281, which is an endorser. The client 260 may include an application leveraging a supported software development kit (SDK), such as NODE, JAVA, PYTHON, and the like, which utilizes an available API to generate a transaction proposal. The proposal is a request to invoke a chaincode function so that data can be read and/or written to the ledger (i.e., write new key value pairs for the assets). The SDK may serve as a shim to package the transaction proposal into a properly architected format (e.g., protocol buffer over a remote procedure call (RPC)) and take the client's cryptographic credentials to produce a unique signature for the transaction proposal.

In response, the endorsing peer node 281 may verify (a) that the transaction proposal is well formed, (b) the transaction has not been submitted already in the past (replay-attack protection), (c) the signature is valid, and (d) that the submitter (client 260, in the example) is properly authorized to perform the proposed operation on that channel. The endorsing peer node 281 may take the transaction proposal inputs as arguments to the invoked chaincode function. The chaincode is then executed against a current state database to produce transaction results including a response value, read set, and write set. However, no updates are made to the ledger at this point. In 292, the set of values, along with the endorsing peer node's 281 signature is passed back as a proposal response 292 to the SDK of the client 260 which parses the payload for the application to consume.

In response, the application of the client 260 inspects/verifies the endorsing peers signatures and compares the proposal responses to determine if the proposal response is the same. If the chaincode only queried the ledger, the application would inspect the query response and would typically not submit the transaction to the ordering node service 284. If the client application intends to submit the transaction to the ordering node service 284 to update the ledger, the application determines if the specified endorsement policy has been fulfilled before submitting (i.e., did all peer nodes necessary for the transaction endorse the transaction). Here, the client may include only one of multiple parties to the transaction. In this case, each client may have their own endorsing node, and each endorsing node will need to endorse the transaction. The architecture is such that even if an application selects not to inspect responses or otherwise forwards an unendorsed transaction, the endorsement policy will still be enforced by peers and upheld at the commit validation phase.

After successful inspection, in step 293 the client 260 assembles endorsements into a transaction and broadcasts the transaction proposal and response within a transaction message to the ordering node 284. The transaction may contain the read/write sets, the endorsing peers signatures and a channel ID. The ordering node 284 does not need to inspect the entire content of a transaction in order to perform its operation, instead the ordering node 284 may simply receive transactions from all channels in the network, order them chronologically by channel, and create blocks of transactions per channel.

The blocks of the transaction are delivered from the ordering node 284 to all peer nodes 281-283 on the channel. The transactions 294 within the block are validated to ensure any endorsement policy is fulfilled and to ensure that there have been no changes to ledger state for read set variables since the read set was generated by the transaction execution. Transactions in the block are tagged as being valid or invalid. Furthermore, in step 295 each peer node 281-283 appends the block to the channel's chain, and for each valid transaction the write sets are committed to current state database. An event is emitted, to notify the client application that the transaction (invocation) has been immutably appended to the chain, as well as to notify whether the transaction was validated or invalidated.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a permissioned blockchain network 300, which features a distributed, decentralized peer-to-peer architecture, and a certificate authority 318 managing user roles and permissions. In this example, the blockchain user 302 may submit a transaction to the permissioned blockchain network 310. In this example, the transaction can be a deploy, invoke or query, and may be issued through a client-side application leveraging an SDK, directly through a REST API, or the like. Trusted business networks may provide access to regulator systems 314, such as auditors (the Securities and Exchange Commission in a U.S. equities market, for example). Meanwhile, a blockchain network operator system of nodes 308 manage member permissions, such as enrolling the regulator system 310 as an “auditor” and the blockchain user 302 as a “client.” An auditor could be restricted only to querying the ledger whereas a client could be authorized to deploy, invoke, and query certain types of chaincode.

A blockchain developer system 316 writes chaincode and client-side applications. The blockchain developer system 316 can deploy chaincode directly to the network through a REST interface. To include credentials from a traditional data source 330 in chaincode, the developer system 316 could use an out-of-band connection to access the data. In this example, the blockchain user 302 connects to the network through a peer node 312. Before proceeding with any transactions, the peer node 312 retrieves the user's enrollment and transaction certificates from the certificate authority 318. In some cases, blockchain users must possess these digital certificates in order to transact on the permissioned blockchain network 310. Meanwhile, a user attempting to drive chaincode may be required to verify their credentials on the traditional data source 330. To confirm the user's authorization, chaincode can use an out-of-band connection to this data through a traditional processing platform 320.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system messaging diagram for performing calculating a timestamp for a smart-contract state and making the state available for smart-contract logic, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 4, the system diagram 400 includes a committer node 410 that sets at 412 an incremental number to each key and value that is modified in a transaction. At 414, each time a transaction is processed, the number is incremented in blockchain 430. At 416, the relative order of changes made to the smart-contract states are determined.

FIG. 5A illustrates a flow diagram 500 of an example method of timestamping changes to a smart-contract state in a blockchain in a blockchain, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 5A, the method 500 may include one or more of calculating at 505 a timestamp for each transaction within a blockchain, wherein the calculating of the time stamp. At 510, the method 500 may include one or more of determining the relative order of change made to a smart-contract state.

FIG. 5B illustrates a flow diagram 550 of an example method of calculating a timestamp in a blockchain, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 5B, the method 550 may also include one or more of setting at 555 an incremental number to each key and value modified in the transaction, and at 560, incrementing the incremental number when the transaction within the blockchain is processed.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example physical infrastructure configured to perform various operations on the blockchain in accordance with one or more of the example methods of operation according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 6A, the example configuration 600 includes a physical infrastructure 610 with a blockchain 620 and a smart contract 630, which may execute any of the operational steps 612 included in any of the example embodiments. The steps/operations 612 may include one or more of the steps described or depicted in one or more flow diagrams and/or logic diagrams. The steps may represent output or written information that is written or read from one or more smart contracts 630 and/or blockchains 620 that reside on the physical infrastructure 610 of a computer system configuration. The data can be output from an executed smart contract 630 and/or blockchain 620. The physical infrastructure 610 may include one or more computers, servers, processors, memories, and/or wireless communication devices.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example smart contract configuration among contracting parties and a mediating server configured to enforce the smart contract terms on the blockchain according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 6B, the configuration 650 may represent a communication session, an asset transfer session or a process or procedure that is driven by a smart contract 630 which explicitly identifies one or more user devices 652 and/or 656. The execution, operations and results of the smart contract execution may be managed by a server 654. Content of the smart contract 630 may require digital signatures by one or more of the entities 652 and 656 which are parties to the smart contract transaction. The results of the smart contract execution may be written to a blockchain as a blockchain transaction.

The above embodiments may be implemented in hardware, in a computer program executed by a processor, in firmware, or in a combination of the above. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium, such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside in random access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”), erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any other form of storage medium known in the art.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor may read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates an example computer system architecture 700, which may represent or be integrated in any of the above-described components, etc.

FIG. 7 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of embodiments of the application described herein. Regardless, the computing node 700 is capable of being implemented and/or performing any of the functionality set forth hereinabove.

In computing node 700 there is a computer system/server 702, which is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with computer system/server 702 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

Computer system/server 702 may be described in the general context of computer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer system/server 702 may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

As shown in FIG. 7, computer system/server 702 in cloud computing node 700 is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing device. The components of computer system/server 702 may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 704, a system memory 706, and a bus that couples various system components including system memory 706 to processor 704.

The bus represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 702 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 702, and it includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media. System memory 706, in one embodiment, implements the flow diagrams of the other figures. The system memory 706 can include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM) 710 and/or cache memory 712. Computer system/server 702 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 714 can be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, each can be connected to the bus by one or more data media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below, memory 706 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of various embodiments of the application.

Program/utility 716, having a set (at least one) of program modules 718, may be stored in memory 706 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. Program modules 718 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of various embodiments of the application as described herein.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present application may be embodied as a system, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Computer system/server 702 may also communicate with one or more external devices 720 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 722, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 702; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 702 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via I/O interfaces 724. Still yet, computer system/server 702 can communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 726. As depicted, network adapter 726 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 702 via a bus. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system/server 702. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

Although an exemplary embodiment of at least one of a system, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium has been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the application is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the system of the various figures can be performed by one or more of the modules or components described herein or in a distributed architecture and may include a transmitter, receiver or pair of both. For example, all or part of the functionality performed by the individual modules, may be performed by one or more of these modules. Further, the functionality described herein may be performed at various times and in relation to various events, internal or external to the modules or components. Also, the information sent between various modules can be sent between the modules via at least one of: a data network, the Internet, a voice network, an Internet Protocol network, a wireless device, a wired device and/or via plurality of protocols. Also, the messages sent or received by any of the modules may be sent or received directly and/or via one or more of the other modules.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodied as a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, a smartphone or any other suitable computing device, or combination of devices. Presenting the above-described functions as being performed by a “system” is not intended to limit the scope of the present application in any way but is intended to provide one example of many embodiments. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be implemented in localized and distributed forms consistent with computing technology.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in this specification have been presented as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or the like.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified unit of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may be stored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a hard disk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any other such medium used to store data.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.

It will be readily understood that the components of the application, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the application as claimed but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the application.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that the above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although the application has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent.

While preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, it is to be understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the application is to be defined solely by the appended claims when considered with a full range of equivalents and modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices, software platforms etc.) thereto. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: executing a first transaction via a smart contract of a blockchain, the executing comprising the smart contract modifying one or more key values on the blockchain and associating a relative value with each of the one or more key values of the first transaction modified by the smart contract; incrementing the relative value in response to executing the first transaction; and executing a second transaction via the smart contract of the blockchain, the executing comprising the smart contract modifying one or more additional key values on the blockchain and associating the incremented relative value with each of the one or more additional key values of the second transaction modified by the smart contract.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the first transaction comprises associating the relative value with a first document, and the executing the second transaction comprises associating the incremented relative value with a second document that is modified after the first document.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing the first transaction comprises associating of a same numeric value to each key modified by the smart contract during execution of the first transaction.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein each the first and second transactions are contained in one of a plurality of blocks in the blockchain.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing the first transaction comprises associating the relative value with a first wallet account, and the executing the second transaction comprises associating the incremented relative value with a second wallet account that is updated after the first wallet account.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative value corresponds to a relative timestamp.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative value comprises a numerical counter value that the smart contract increments each time a transaction is executed.
 8. A system, comprising: a processor configured to: execute a first transaction via a smart contract of a blockchain, where the smart contract modifies one or more key values on the blockchain and associates a relative value with each of the one or more key values of the first transaction modified by the smart contract; increment the relative value in response to execution of the first transaction; and execute a second transaction via the smart contract of the blockchain, where the smart contract modifies one or more additional key values on the blockchain and associates the incremented relative value with each of the one or more additional key values of the second transaction modified by the smart contract.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to associate the relative value with a first document modified by the first transaction, and associate the incremented relative value with a second document modified by the second transaction after the first document is modified by the first transaction.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to associate a same numeric value to each key modified by the first transaction.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second transactions are contained in one of a plurality of blocks in the blockchain.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to associate the relative value with a first wallet account in the first transaction, and associate the incremented relative value with a second wallet account in the second transaction that is updated after the first wallet account.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the relative value corresponds to a relative timestamp.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the relative value comprises a numerical counter value that the smart contract increments each time a transaction is executed.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, that when read by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising: executing a first transaction via a smart contract of a blockchain, the executing comprising the smart contract modifying one or more key values on the blockchain and associating a relative value with each of the one or more key values of the first transaction modified by the smart contract; incrementing the relative value in response to executing the first transaction; and executing a second transaction via the smart contract of the blockchain, the executing comprising the smart contract modifying one or more additional key values on the blockchain and associating the incremented relative value with each of the one or more additional key values of the second transaction modified by the smart contract.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the executing the first transaction comprises associating the relative value with a first document, and the executing the second transaction comprises associating the incremented relative value with a second document that is modified after the first document.
 17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the executing the first transaction comprises associating a same numeric value to each key modified by the first transaction.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first and second transactions are contained in one of a plurality of blocks in the blockchain.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the executing the first transaction comprises associating the relative value with a first wallet account, and the executing the second transaction comprises associating the incremented relative value with a second wallet account that is updated after the first wallet account.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the relative value corresponds to a relative timestamp. 